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Chapter 572 - 247.40+ is not enough, then add a little more! _2

Chapter 572: 247.40+ is not enough, then add a little more! _2

But after retreating under the basket, Harden faced an approaching Zhang Yang with despair in his heart... Why am I the only one who got back?

Boss, come back quick, I can’t take it alone... but Durant had just crossed the midcourt line.

Zhang Yang unleashed a Euro step, took two strides to get beside Harden, and with a cleverness beyond others, Harden darted out of the three-second zone; Zhang Yang landed on his second step, leaped, and slammed the ball into the hoop with one hand!

They had barely played two and a half rounds of the game after the official timeout, and the Thunder Team called for another!

to 86, the score was tied!

Brooks’s eyes bulged, and if he couldn’t discern the opponent’s strategy by now, he wouldn’t have been a head coach for so many years.

It was a tactic that was easy to counter; he thought of an adaptive strategy—let Harden go wild, sacrificing some offensive efficiency to conserve Durant’s energy.

But seeing through it, coming up with a plan, was already too late—Durant was worn out!

After the timeout, Brooks still kept Durant on the court; the more critical the score became, the more unfavorable the situation, the more he relied on Durant.

By this time, Harden had realized his mistake; he had suffered from his unwillingness to seem disadvantaged!

That night, faced with the twin towers of Jordan Hill and Gasol, along with Zhang Yang’s chase-down defense, his efficiency dropped, so he increased his passing; he gave Durant, who had a very high solo-scoring efficiency, more of the ball, and then he wore Durant out...

However, right then, he couldn’t afford to worry about regrets, took up the burden, and contended with Zhang Yang!

But he couldn’t outdo him...

In the last 4 plus minutes of the third quarter, Durant wilted, Zhang Yang concentrated his energy on an aggressive offense, one-on-one—if faced with help defense, he would shoot; if double-teamed, he’d pass to Gasol. Gasol, regaining his role as the key player plus tactical core, performed excellently; Zhang Yang scored 6 points and 1 assist, Gasol 2 points and 2 assists; together they led the team to get 13 points in just over 4 minutes.

Harden did score 6 points, with 2 assists as well--looking at his stats, they seemed better than Zhang Yang’s, but Zhang Yang was 3 for 2 from the field plus 2 for 2 at the free-throw line, whereas he was 5 for 2 from the field plus 1 for 1 at the free-throw line, and the Thunder Team’s points all depended on him passing the ball.

In that period, Durant took two more hail Mary shots, neither went in...

The Thunder Team only scored 10 points in that period!

Zhang Yang scored 15 points in the third quarter alone; Nash played 4 minutes, scored 4 points and got 1 assist; Gasol played 8 minutes, scored 4 points and got 3 assists... scoring 34 points.

Meanwhile, for the Thunder Team, Harden had 8 points and 3 assists for the quarter; Durant went 2 for 6 from the field, only getting 4 points and 2 assists; the whole team only scored 26 points for the quarter!

At halftime, with 8 out of 12 from Durant, with the third quarter finished, his shot performance shifted to 10 out of 18, gradually gravitating towards a 50% shooting percentage...

to 96, the Lakers Team moved ahead of the Thunder Team by 3 points going into the intermission!

The score overturned, Durant had relentlessly attacked in the first half, exhausting his energy, which caused disarray and helplessness among the Thunder Team’s coaches and players. However, that was just disconcerting for them; when they saw the data listed on the big screen, they panicked.

Zhang Yang had scored a thundering 40 points with 14 out of 21 from the field, including 3 out of 5 three pointers, plus 9 out of 10 from the free-throw line by the end of the third quarter!

Before, the Thunder Team’s coaches and players had all their attention on Durant, going 8 for 12 from the field at halftime--so strong, so impressive--only to suddenly realize after three quarters, Zhang Yang’s efficiency was as high as Durant’s first half!

But before seeing the stats, they didn’t feel this way; in their minds, Zhang Yang was basically scoring one, missing one, about 50% shooting percentage seemed right.

Harden saw the truth, remarking, "Jack’s regular field goal percentage isn’t that high. If you take out the two instances in the second and third quarters where he scored three in a row, getting 7 points each time, his actual shooting performance would be 8 for 15."

The teammates recalled Zhang Yang’s solo counterattacks and nodded in agreement, Second Brother was right, it was true... but you can’t just separate those out! He still went 14 for 21 and scored 40 points!

And even at 8 for 15 with 26 points, that was still strong; Durant had 8 for 12 and scored 25 points at halftime, mostly taking close-range shots, leveraging his height to shoot over defenders, while Zhang Yang’s shots came from mid to long range!

In truth, if Durant himself had said this, his teammates might really have been reassured. Some words carry weight when spoken by the person whom the teammates believe in. Although Harden had made significant progress this season, averaging 25+5+5, in his teammates’ eyes, Durant was clearly stronger; even Westbrook, who had left, was considered stronger by most, with regular-season averages of 26 points, 8 boards, and 9 assists, and a single-season 21 triple-doubles...

Just like in the original timeline, when some said Harden was stronger than Westbrook in his first year away, here, the one who had left was Westbrook, hence there were naturally more saying Westbrook was stronger than Harden; what is lost is always seen as the best.

To win his teammates’ respect, Harden still had a lot of work to do!

...

Compared to the demoralized and flustered Thunder Team, the Lakers Team’s morale was soaring!

Several coaches were astonished by Bickerstaff’s micromanagement!

Worthy of being the expert who upsets the hierarchy! In such a severely unfavorable situation, Bickerstaff still found a way.

Trusting Gasol completely, he handed over the task of organizing the offense to Gasol, completely unleashing Zhang Yang’s scoring ability; he made good use of Nash, reducing Zhang Yang’s expenditure and creating more rest time for him... piercing through the opponent’s defensive readiness!

It was a coincidence that, during the Nuggets Team’s historic first-ever 8th seed upset, the Supersonics head coach was George Karl, and Brooks had learned from George Karl—buff stacked to the max!

Soon, the fourth quarter began.